Deezil is right on. You mite want to use two buckets, depending on how many plums you are using. I have enough wild plums in the freezer to do a batch, but havn't gotten around to it yet. Will happen before winter is over. Probably should have at least 5 or 6 lbs to the gallon. Freeze them first, put them in the primary. Let them thaw, best to have them in some kindof bag as Deez says. Makes getting the fruits out of the ferment bucket much easier when it is time. Mash the fruits with your hands or whatever works for you. Try not to break the stones as they will give a bitter flavor. Anyway, thaw, add water, bring your specific gravity up where you want it. This gives the alcohol level you want. Probably about 1.085 or so. Don't want too much alcohol or you won't get the fruit flavor to come thru. Add the k-meta or campden tabs. Wait 12 hrs, add the pectic enzime. At this time, I add some yeast nutrient and yeast energizer. Wait another 12 hours or so, pitch the yeast. They must should be about 70 degrees or a bit higher in temp. The yeast should take off within 48 hours or so. Most times faster, but winter temps sometimes slow it down a bit. Stir the must at least once a day, if you get around to it, a couple of times a day won't hurt a thing. When the specific gravity gets down to 1.010 or so, remove all the fruit and rack to your 5 gal. carboy. When fermenting in the primary, you can just keep a towel over the primary, lock the lid down if you like, but then you have to have an airlock in it. Now you have it in the secondary. For the first bit, keep the level down in the carboy a ways. After it settles down, top it up to the neck. After you rack it to the secondary, if you have some left over, put it into a smaller bottle and you can use this to top the carboy off. Now you let it finish out. When it gets to less than 1.000 and stays the same for at least 3 days in a row it is finished. Now you can stabalize it, clear, and sweeten. Come back and ask questions as you go. You said sandhill plums, are you from around here? I'm in central Nebr. Good luck with it, and welcome to the forum. I probably left something out, but this is most of what it takes. Arne.